British airports get baggage bomb detector

British airports get baggage bomb detector

LONDON (Reuter): The world's first automatic bomb detection system for airline luggage is being installed in Britain, the company operating the country's main airports said yesterday.

BAA plc said the new equipment -- devised on government orders after the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airplane over Scotland -- uses computerized X-ray machinery to analyze materials and match them to profiles of explosives.

A suspect bag is sent for further checks, including examination by sensors which detect explosives' vapors.

BAA said the equipment can check up to 20 bags a minute and will not prolong existing check-in procedures. The new system will be positioned in the baggage sorting area of an airport with luggage examined once it has been checked in.

After the Pan Am plane was blown up over Scotland, killing all 259 passengers as well as 11 residents of the town of Lockerbie, Britain issued a directive requiring that by 1996 all luggage be screened before going into an aircraft's hold.

BAA was asked by the government and airlines to help develop a screening system and has developed the technology over the past two-and-a-half years with the transport department and a number of security equipment makers.

The system has been on trial at Glasgow airport and will initially be installed at the Heathrow and Gatwick airports near London to check international transit baggage.

It will be installed to screen all hold luggage at its seven airports by 1996 at a cost of 150 million pounds (US$220.5 million).

The company said it expects to recoup investment on the system through aircraft landing charges.

"No other airport in the world is currently using this technology, which can be integrated into existing baggage systems, but we very much hope that others will follow our lead," Richard Everitt, BAA director of safety and security said in a statement.

"One of the great benefits of this technology is that it increases the protection for passengers without disrupting their journeys and allows the airport to continue operating efficiently."